a great day with Thomas

Would you believe that I didn't take a SINGLE picture the whole day? My husband's not very happy with me about that, but he wanted me to take our giant SLR camera AND the video camera, which are both housed in a giant camera bag, which is a backpack. It's hard to get in and out of the bag, and the giant camera is too heavy to wear around your neck all day. So I gave my dad the video camera and put him in charge of that, and got these pictures from my mom (and hopefully some from my brother, too, when he gets a chance), and I was mostly in charge of the stroller and Rachel (who was usually out of the stroller running around to see something), and that was more than enough for me to handle. Plus I just got to watch her take it all in and enjoy it, which was the biggest thrill of the day.

Thomas came to a historical village about an hour from my parents' house. It's a neat place to go even when Thomas isn't there--lots to see and do and learn about what life was like back in the 1800s. They have their own train that goes all around the park. When Thomas is there they just use the cars from their train and Thomas pulls them. There were a zillion kids, parents, and grandparents there, and we were trying to figure out just how much their revenue goes up during the three days that Thomas comes to their little village!

We got there a little late, so we had to book it from the car to the back of the village where the train station was. The brochure said it was a 20 minute walk. We made it in 8 minutes, with plenty of time to spare.

Here are Rachel and her cousin Alex waiting at the station for Thomas to come back from his previous ride. We could hear his whistles all around, so the kids knew he was coming and couldn't wait to see him.

These are their first glimpses of Thomas coming down the track. You can see Rachel waving and waving. We could see the steam coming from the smokestack and then they saw his face. Even his eyes were moving! Rachel let out a squeal, "It's THOMAS!!!!!" That was the best moment of the day.

Here we all are on the train, waiting for it to pull out of the station. Alex is hiding between my brother and my mom. He didn't want his picture taken.

After the train ride we all stood for this picture, but Rachel wouldn't look at the camera and I was trying to tell her to, which is why neither of us are looking. You can barely see Thomas in the background, along with the station.

Rachel watched another little boy get a tattoo and then decided she'd sit and get one too. We thought she'd be afraid, but she sat still and was so patient. She had a few different trains to choose from, but she chose a Thomas tattoo.

She was so proud of it and walked around with her hand like this forever, just looking at it and showing it to anyone who would look. That night she was sad to wash it off in the bathtub. She told me that tomorrow she would get the Harold (the helicopter) tattoo when we went back to the Thomas place. I had to try to explain that we wouldn't be going back to the Thomas place tomorrow or getting another tattoo.

They had several tents set up with activites for the kids to do inside. This one was a gift shop with anything and everything with Thomas on it. Rachel enjoyed playing at the train table.

Grandma bought Rachel a new shirt at the gift shop. She was supposed to be posing to show her shirt, but she turned away just at the last second.So Mommy turned her around and tried to get her to look. She still didn't, and Grandma took this picture anyway, as I was trying to tell Rachel to look.One of the activities was watching a Thomas video, which they were showing on a big TV screen. Rachel found a chair and sat mesmerized. She would've stayed for more if we would've let her.Since it's a historical village, they had a lawn with lots of old fashioned types of games and activities set up. One was hula hoops. Rachel loved trying, but her version of hula hooping is holding onto the hoop and spinning herself around in circles. It was pretty funny to watch, but she had a ball.We were going to be leaving soon, so we went back to the station one last time to tell Thomas goodbye. You had to pay for photographers to take your picture right in front of Thomas (where those people are out to the left of us in this picture). We did the best we could and got this picture instead.

Before we left, Rachel wanted to see Sir Topham Hatt, "The Fat Controller," (that's what they call him in the books and on the videos!). She had been talking about it all morning, that she wanted to see him. So we waited in line for a bit and then it was Rachel's turn. I asked her what she was going to say to Sir Topham Hatt. She said, "I say that I pee pee in my pants." (She had just gone in her pull up and I was going to go change her as soon as we finished standing in line!) I told her she didn't need to tell him that. So all she did was go up and give him a big hug and pose for this picture. She was so excited to see him.

We left soon after that. It was a full, fun morning. The weather was perfect and watching Rachel glow from excitement of seeing Thomas and being with some of her favorite people was a joy. Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa, for a fun day.